The Democratic advocate. [volume] (Westminster, Md.) 1865-1972, 1887-01-08
Aoehral
Gettysburg.
Ccopyrighted in 1855 by J. W. slagenhaup.J

Y.
An anxious nation almost breathess waits
To know the issue to arise from whence
The conflict RACES; and throughout the states
On wings electric news is carried thence;
And Philadelphia is in deep suspense,
With sister cities that on each hand are
Unknown how soon Affections may commence, &.
To fall upon them; and fair Baltimore
Almost in hearing lies of the great battles roar.
o Gettysburg! what boding fears are thine,
When through thy streets the Kissing bullets fly
On each side ranged the long extended line;
Beneath the storm thy coy dwellings lie
The swelling throb of war around thee beats:
In thunder peals the lannon's boom repeats
Stern Wars impersonation frowning stands,
With look ferocious in his glowing eye;
He scatters lightnings from his livid hands
To right and left, o'erhead ascending high.
Now full in view he stalks with frightful strides,
And then behind the smoky curtain hides.
The marshaled thousands of contending men
Form an unspeakably sublime array;
The brush of artist and the writer's pen
The great reality cannot portray.
That panorama spreads upon the screen
Ofhistory an image seldom seen.
The battle roars; the tempest rolls afar,
Like the great cyclone on the western plain,
When it drives onward on its cloudy car,
Fringcd with the lightning, curtained by the rain
By loud continuous peals of thunder riven
With violence by winds terrific driven.
In time of joyful harvest, when the wheat
Luxuriantly waved in well-tilled fields,
How gladly would the cheerful reapers meet
To gather what industrious culture yields
In colors, rich and golden, far and near,
Valley and hill with natures gifts appear.
1t was another harvest-men and steeds
Lay in thick win-rows;-s CLEAN,
Gun-barrels and bayonets lie like the weeds
That are amassed along marshy stream,
And broken wagons, strewn in fragments round,
And banners, torn, lie on the Redeemed ground.
How pleasant was the scene before the sound
ofbattle echoed from surrounding hills;
And now the hosts in arms are all around,
And the loud roar the young and aged thrills,
Where hum of trade the sounds of industry,
And converse lately blended pleasantly
The reaper's voice wssheard in haryest-feld.
In pastures. green the lowing of the kline;
The moeki6g- bird sang in the branch concealed;
Tic robin chirped and futtered in the PINE
The cooling loye-note of the turtle-dove
Vas softly sounding in the shady grove.
There the home circle, gathered at the board
In happy group, partook the daily meals,
And lifes endearments pleasures pure Afford
And love of home and kindred each one feels,
And hearts are cheerful with lifes hopes and joys
While none as yet thought Of harm annoys
Light as a fairy, on the grassy lawn
Is seen in chase of butterfly the child,
Or, in the fields and woodlands near the town,
Culling in shady nook the flower wild,
Then, like the startled deer, she homeward hies,
And TO her mother pale and trembling flies
That morning on the maiden's cheek the glow
Vas like the bushes of the opening rose;
The changing hues of health and beauty flow
Upon her brow no more at evenings close
The dreadful fears of that eventful day
Have chased those varied blooming tints away.
The hopeful matron, in whose heart there flows
The tide of life at flood, is nerveless there,
Though in her nature strong endurance dwelis
Trial and care with patient hope to bear;
Her darling son perhaps the musket bore
With foremost anks-or falls to rise no more.
circle gathered at the morning meal,
Had finished their repast and left the -
Had j(ist retred-there wassstduIidef'Fe
crash,-and through the walls the
bomb
And where the family had taken food
It fell, exploding where the table stood.
What ehastly scene so strange the mind ap
Ofhavoc dread on field of battle wrought
Within the sanctuary's sacred walls
The wounded soldiers are for shelter broL
Where rang the anthem and the organ-tone
Is heard of suffering the plaintive moan.
There lately on the fower-seented dir
FIoated in gauzy waves the bridal veil,
~ ssseea re s-seif-->--